Saturday
I didn't write a blog post yesterday. I'm tempted to say this is far greater importance than the orange lunatic winning the US presidential election (or maybe a symptom of it), but that would of course be a ridiculous thing to suggest. After a long and uneventful journey home, I dropped my bags, and immediately began helping with chores around the house. The washing machine and tumble dryer have been on non-stop since I walked in the door last night. Well... apart from this morning, while I stopped at the side of a football pitch in driving rain for two hours, but I'll get to that.
I was pretty pissed off when I got in last night – not that my other half hadn't done anything – more that the kids hadn't helped her more in my absence. On Tuesday morning I left a house behind that was probably in a better state than it had been in months. When I got home, there was dirty washing everywhere, the kids rooms were trashed, the kitchen was trashed, there were stacks of junk-mail all over the place... none of it took that long to take care of, but the kids really could have at least tried to help.
Anyway!
Saturday feels like it's not happening, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I was awake at 7am, and after listening to the steady rain falling outside for a while, checked my phone to see if there were any emails about football being cancelled. No emails. A couple of hours later – after putting a couple more of loads of washing through the machine, I set off into town with Miss 12, both of us wrapped up like North Sea fisherman to brave the elements.
The two hours spent on the touchline of the football pitch were “character forming”. I stood with a couple of families that live nearby, and watched our children slug it out against both the opposition team, and the elements. Towards the end I had pretty much lost all sensation in my feet. At least our team won, otherwise the trudge home might have been a little less happy.
While stood watching the football, I found myself talking to another Dad that I've seen around the place for years. Turns out he's a software and web developer too – although he works from home, and does freelance projects. When I explained what I do, he said “oh, you're like a proper grown-up developer”. I didn't quite know what to say in response, so just smiled.
This afternoon has been all about washing and drying clothes again, and thinking about getting ready to go out tonight.
Yes, you read right. We're actually going out for a grown-up evening out. Some time ago I posted to a few friends on Facebook that it had been far too long since we had seen them, and wouldn't it be a good idea to use that as an excuse to get something to eat at a local restaurant. Of course, finding an evening when we were all free took some doing, and it ended up being weeks into the future – so I forgot all about it. When I got home last night I asked if we had anything planned over the weekend, and my other half rolled her eyes at my own ineptitude.
Time is marching on. I really should go get in the shower. We're going to a Thai restaurant. I imagine I'll choose a curry that will blow the top of my head off, and claim “I'm fine!” while eating it, because I'm stupid like that.